Esther Ann Hunt McFeely, believed to be the longest surviving Oakland Tech High alumna, left us quietly at age 104 on February 13, 2015, in the presence of her children gathered in the Rockridge home in which she had lived since 1920.

Esther was born in San Francisco January 19, 1911, to Howard and Cecelia Hunt and spent her early years in Nevada City where her grandfather had been a "grubstaker" during the California Gold Rush of the 1850s.

For many of us, kitchens represent a major hub of activity in our homes. Not only do kitchens offer the potential for endless nourishment, they also have a way of becoming the epicenter of social interaction. Kitchens draw us in with their aromas, edible resources and technological utility. It's no surprise that the kitchen is the single most energy-intensive room in our homes, often representing as much as 15 percent of our home energy use.

Bosko's Framing Gallery is starting its 70th year in business at the southeast corner of College and Armanino Court. Currently in the display windows at Bosko's are a colorful variety of objets d'art: paintings by Lynne Bostick, Jason Schoner, and Rip Matteson, watercolors by Wendy Yoshimura, giclee prints by Lois Wachner-Solomon, and vintage pottery.

Although the College Avenue Safeway has opened, there are a number of items that do not yet comply with either the use permit conditions or the settlement agreement with community groups. The groups are submitting a list of uncompleted items to Safeway and Terramar (the new owner of the retail building), as is the city. The groups plan to meet with Safeway in February to resolve those items not yet completed. Please e-mail information about issues you have with the project to landuse@rockridge.org.

Transports was started by Kei Kodani in 1982 in a small space above Barclay's Pub. Kei began the business selling camping and hiking equipment, and it seemed to complement the adjacent store that focused on running shoes. However, when that store went out of business, the salesmen providing that inventory convinced Kei, himself a runner, to carry their lines. Shortly thereafter, Kei moved a few doors up the street and next to the then-location of the Sierra Club bookstore where he remained for 20 years.

Gone are the days of the school PTA when bake sales funded "bells and whistles" for our schools. As OUSD budgets continue their downward trend, more community resources are needed to bridge the public funding shortfall.

Finally we have a hardware store on College! For more than 30 years, when friends would comment how lucky we were to live near so many great restaurants and shops, my response was always the same: "But we don't have a neighborhood hardware store."

The Friends of the Rockridge Library (FORL) is looking for candidates to fill open seats on our board. Our all-volunteer board collaborates with library management and staff to fund programs and resources not covered under the library budget.

The view entering Rockridge is much nicer these days for motorists exiting Hwy 24 at Claremont Avenue: New shrubs line the ramp; new trees line nearby sidewalks; the DaVita Dialysis facility on the corner of Clifton has been transformed.

But travel up Claremont Avenue, as most guests approaching the historic Claremont Hotel do, and you'll find the area near the highway underpass needs sprucing up. Scenic Streets thinks the huge median in the middle of the street would be a smart place to start.

Early in January, the venerable Kingfish pub - in its lower Claremont Avenue location since 1922 - was moved to the now-vacant fabled Soul Brothers Kitchen site on Telegraph Avenue next to the Temescal Branch Library. The vacated Claremont Avenue space will be filled with a planned townhouse development.

The familiar sign-off to announcements of DMV Neighbors Association-sponsored cleanup days along Temescal Creek - ÒMeet at the big eucalyptus at the corner of Cavour and RedondoÓ - will change soon. As I write, the city is in process of removing the venerable giant. While it's sad for many reasons, the tree is diseased, damaged, and dangerous. Over the past couple of years, huge limbs have fallen on the lawn and adjacent trees, and the nearby sidewalk has just about been destroyed by the tree's roots.

The spirit of community support runs long and deep in Rockridge. The Vernon Rock-Ridge Hall, pictured below, can be seen as a first link in a direct line of community service persistent in Rockridge today. As described more fully below and here, funding for the hall's construction came from the sale of shares among community members. Furthermore, "the facility served as a clubhouse for community events and as a children's center," according to web references.

Though the anticipated tour date of Sunday, September 20, 2015, may seem far away, any chef will tell you that success lies in planning ahead and assembling the best ingredients. To that end, the 2015 Rockridge Kitchen Tour planning committee is beginning its search for beautifully remodeled Rockridge kitchens. Kitchens can be classic, contemporary, modern or traditional.

Were you able to attend an RCPC Town Hall meeting last year? If so, you may have noticed that the RCPC board was experimenting with new practices to make it easier for folks to attend: for example, opening at 7 p.m. and serving Jules Pizza to help tide folks over who come straight from work without grabbing dinner.

You may also have noticed RCPC put more emphasis on broadly publicizing the meetings to increase awareness of them among residents who may not see the announcements in The Rockridge News.

The photograph shows children in front of the Vernon Rock-Ridge Hall, a community clubhouse of the Vernon Rock-Ridge Improvement Club, designed by its president, architect Clarence A. Tantau and completed in 1913 as the first of its kind in Oakland. Financing for the structure came through a cooperative sale of shares with a final total of 85 shareholders among members of the community. The facility served as a clubhouse for community events and as a children's center. The structure has housed Ye Olde Hut, a familiar saloon along the College Avenue commercial strip, for many years.

How is crime in Oakland these days? Going up or going down? Staying the same? A reading of some recent reports appearing on Next Door Rockridge (rockridgeca.nextdoor.com/news_feed/) could make it seem that crime is spreading.